US Border Crisis Has New Epicenter

San Diego has become the "new epicenter" of the country's border crisis, according to officials.

Border Patrol agents had apprehended 2,000 people illegally crossing into the U.S. on one day last week, Desmond said. Immigration has emerged as a central issue ahead of the 2024 presidential election and is seen as a growing political crisis for President Joe Biden.

"San Diego is the new epicenter for migrants and illegal immigration," San Diego District 5 Supervisor Jim Desmond wrote on X, formerly Twitter, last week.

"The surge in illegal crossings has propelled San Diego to the unfortunate position of leading all nine southern border sectors in April, a trend unseen since the 1990's," Desmond said.

Human smugglers had identified California as "the path of least resistance for illegal immigration," Desmond added. "Border Patrol has inadvertently become the 'Uber' for migrants entering San Diego County, and the County is the travel agent."

Patricia McGurk-Daniel, Border Patrol's San Diego sector chief, has said the sector was the "busiest in sheer numbers" of the nine along the U.S.-Mexico border in April.

But it's not "something that's new," she told Border Report. "We've been the epicenter for quite a while; San Diego per square mile has usually been the busiest sector on the entire Southwest border historically."

McGurk-Daniel said April's numbers brought the number of apprehensions in the sector in the current fiscal year—which ends September 30—to 200,000, Last year, there were 230,000 apprehensions.

The border crisis has mostly centered on Texas, where Republican Governor Greg Abbott has repeatedly clashed with the Biden administration over immigration policies.

As Texas has ramped up measures to curb border crossings, illegal entries have dropped in the state but risen in California, Arizona and New Mexico, The Center Square reported.

Data from U.S. Customs and Border Protection shows a sharp rise in the number of migrant encounters in the San Diego sector in recent months.

There were 33,784 apprehensions in the sector in March, up 45 percent from the same period the previous year, according to the data. Only the Tucson sector saw more apprehensions in March, with 41,941.

The agency has not updated its dashboard to include April's figures. Newsweek has contacted CBP for comment via email.

Amid the rise in illegal crossings in the San Diego area, there have been growing numbers of migrants being injured in falls from the border wall. Injuries and deaths from falls in the area have risen since sections of the wall were heightened to 30 feet during Donald Trump's administration.

Two women were injured after falling from the wall near San Diego on Monday night, according to Fox 5.